Author: TheConversation

By Dina Khapaeva, Professor of Cultural Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology Beginning in September 2025, Russian middle and high school students will be handed a new textbook titled “My Family.” Published in March 2025, the textbook’s co-author Nina Ostanina, chair of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of the Family, claims that it will teach students “traditional moral values” that will improve “the demographic situation in the country” as part of a “Family Studies” course that was rolled out in the 2024-2025 school year. But some of those lessons for modern living come from a less-than-modern source. Among...

By Linda E. White, Professor of Japanese Studies, Middlebury For centuries, women entering marriage in Japan have been bound by the Confucian notion of personal sacrifice for the good of the family, and that has extended to their names. Encouraged by a sexual double standard and shaped by a general perception of Japan as a society made for men, most women abandon their maiden names when tying the knot. The law doesn’t give them much leeway on the issue. Since 1947, Japanese Civil Code has stipulated that all married couples must share a common surname. Although in theory that...

By Seth T. Kannarr, PhD Candidate in Geography, University of Tennessee; Derek H. Alderman, Chancellor’s Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee; Jordan Brasher, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography, Macalester College Place names are more than just labels on a map. They influence how people learn about the world around them and perceive their place in it. Names can send messages and suggest what is and is not valued in society. And the way that they are changed over time can signal cultural shifts. The United States is in the midst of a place-renaming moment. From the renaming of the...

By Julia Standefer, Ph.D. Student in Psychology, Iowa State University; and L. Alison Phillips, Professor of Psychology, Iowa State University A state law signed on February 28, 2025, removed gender identity as a protected status from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, leaving transgender people vulnerable to discrimination. The rights of transgender people – those who present gender characteristics that differ from what has historically been expected of someone based on their biological sex traits – are under political attack across the United States. There are now hundreds of anti-trans bills at various points in the legislative process. Reasons given...

By Paul Bierman, Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Vermont In 1957, Hollywood released “The Deadly Mantis,” a B-grade monster movie starring a praying mantis of nightmare proportions. Its premise: Melting Arctic ice has released a very hungry, million-year-old megabug, and scientists and the U.S. military will have to stop it. The rampaging insect menaces America’s Arctic military outposts, part of a critical line of national defense, before heading south and meeting its end in New York City. Yes, it is over-the-top fiction, but the movie holds some truth...